Damascus region was Thursday under heavy artillery fire by the Syrian army who carried out a major operation, reported the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR). Violence in Syria killed more than 39,000 people in 20 months, according to a new assessment by the London-based organization.

The artillery shelling concentrated on the towns of Daraya (southwest) and Mouadamiya al-Sham (north-east), according to the SOHR. Meanwhile, the network of activists of the General Commission of the Syrian revolution (CGRS) spoke about serious humanitarian situation faced by the inhabitants of these two localties.

And Local Coordination Committees (LCC), another group of activists on the ground, reported that electricity was cut in Daraya where people rushed for cover.At Duma and Harasta, in the same province, four people, including a rebel were killed by shelling, fighting and snipers. Violence left 21 dead in the Damascus region on Wednesday, said the SOHR.

The southern suburbs of Damascus, including that of Tadamoun, were also plagued by bombings on Thursday, as rebels and soldiers clashed for several days for their control, according to the SOHR.

State media have recently published frequent reports about "terrorist infiltrations" in the capital, saying that the army manages to outwit them. Elsewhere in the country, fighting reported between the army and rebels around an intelligence center near the military airport of Aleppo, the commercial metropolis of the north, while the rebel town of Azaz, further north, near Turkey, was bombed by the army.

At Boukamal on the Iraqi border, eight soldiers and three rebels were killed in fierce fighting that allowed insurgents to seize two posts, added the same source.The official SANA news agency said the army had managed to kill many "terrorists" in Boukamal.

According to a preliminary assessment of the SOHR, 39 people were killed in violence Thursday, 9 civilians, 17 soldiers and 13 rebels.

In the center of the country, the army conducted a major incursion into an area in the city of Homs, Al-Waar, killing two rebels and a civilian. This came in attempt to try to regain control of the region, according to the SOHR.

Also in the province of Homs, many civilians including children were injured in the bombing of the city of Qousseir near the Lebanese border. On Wednesday, 126 people were killed across Syria, according to the SOHR.